Increases in speed and performance in conjunction with a long lifetime for electronic devices are generally desired. These features drive a demand for increased power and, therefore, increased heat dissipation. A variety of conventional mechanisms for improving dissipation of heat in electronic devices have been proposed. Some of these conventional mechanisms include single-phase heat dissipation utilizing a liquid coolant. Others involve two-phase heat dissipation. In two-phase systems, energy taken up by the liquid-vapor transition provides a high degree of cooling power. In order to exploit this cooling power in electronic devices, two-phase micro-channel heat sinks have been proposed. Two-phase micro-channel heat sinks typically include micro-sized parallel channels through which a boiling liquid coolant flows. Advantages that might be provided by these two-phase micro-channel heat sinks include lower thermal resistance, a large surface-area-to-volume ratio, the possibility of a small heat sink weight and volume, a relatively small liquid coolant inventory and flow rate requirement, and relatively uniform temperature distribution in the flow direction. However, such micro-channel heat sinks are typically subject to instabilities that prevent their use in devices. In particular, the micro-channel heat sink may be subject to dryout in regions of particular channels. Areas of dryout include only vapor coolant. The dryout may cause temperature and pressure oscillations that prevent the micro-channel heat sink from operating as desired. In addition to issues with the micro-channel heat sink itself, there may be difficulties in adapting the micro-channel heat sink to use with electronic devices. The delivery of fluid, ability to maintain a flow through the micro-channel heat sink, the form factor for particular devices, and other factors may reduce the utility of two-phase micro-channel heat sinks in cooling of electronic devices.
Accordingly, what is desired is an improved method and system for cooling of devices, such as electronic devices.